She loves me, she loves me not. That’s the vibe you get with this weird Exchange ActiveSync saga/drama going on between Google and Microsoft right now. It was back in mid-December that Google dropped a bomb on the internet (and mostly Microsoft) by announcing that it was going to stop supporting EAS on January 30, 2013 – which is today.

Existing connections wouldn’t be affected, but going forward anyone trying to set up a Gmail account on a Windows Phone would have a less than ideal experience. Now we’ve got a temporary silver lining.

About 10 days ago we reported that Microsoft was going to work on implement CardDAV and CalDAV for Windows Phone. That would allow Gmail users to get all their contact and calendars syncing nicely on a shiny new Windows Phone.

In an official blog post on the Windows Phone Blog, Microsoft announced that Google would continue to support new connections through Exchange ActiveSync for Windows Phone devices until July 31, 2013. In the meantime, the company will go forward with adding support for both CardDAV and CalDAV for the Windows Phone operating system. Combined with their IMAP support, anyone setting up a Gmail account on a Windows Phone device will get a smooth experience when Google does stop the EAS support later this year.

Since Youtube API's haven't been shared my guess is that Google did this action for the same reasons that they made the maps change, they were losing business.
I guess quite a few email accounts disappeared, so they could not longer read through those people's emails and tailor adverts to them based on the information read, that sort of thing eats into their core business - Nice :)

Doing it to... but account managment in Outlook is a pain. may it be sending over foregin smtp or receiving my 1.9GB of emails from gmail. trying it for 2 weeks now and still not completed this procedure

Might be the same as with Google Maps on iOS. They refused to put turn by turn until Apple came out with their crappy maps, and suddenly, in record time, Google came out with new maps app which are, in their own words, "better than Google Maps on Android".
That is the problem I'm having with Google - a lot of bold words, but not much backbone. Basically bluffing. Hardly an attitude I can have faith in.
In addition. I like to think things are worth much as we paid for them. Sometimes we overpay. Underpay, not so often. But most user-oriented stuff from Google is free; Android, browser, Picasa, maps, mail... you name it. What does that mean? Are they worth much as they cost - as in, no guarantees Google can tomorrow kill any/all of them, no obligations - or are we already paying for them without really knowing?

I prefer this cooperation to the previous state of picking sides. I like both Microsoft and Google for different reasons. I do like that this way I dont have to choose. I can have what I like from both sides.

Seems like Google wants to keep the DOJ off their ass in the mobile space. Or at least they remembered were their bread is buttered (happy users of Google services who eyeballs are sold to advertisers).

The other possibility is they realized they were being called out on their "do no evil" bullshit but l find that hard to believe. At least there is a reasonable time frame for implementing these changes now for those who haven't been enlightened enough to move away from Google's services :)

I did the same thing. I pretty much heard about this and said &quot;Well, eff it, I&#39;m already on Windows Phone, time to make the switch&quot;. I appreciate the integration with Windows services much more through Outlook than Gmail.

It's not that confusing. Google isn't going to get kudos for delaying their poor behaviour. It's not like people are pissed because they won't add support for the EAS protocol. Google already implemented EAS and have supported it for years. People are pissed because they are removing it. There is no logical reason to do this other than to try to lock Win Phone users out of Google Internet services.

One of the main principals of the Internet is that services are available based on common protocols and can be accessed from anywhere on any device. I can't imagine why anyone would endorse Google (or any other company) restricting access to email services or web sites (Google Maps and YouTube so far) based on the device (Windows Phone). It sets a dangerous precident.

Except they are still paying for it, as the paid Google accounts still include EAS support. I doubt it is 100% a licensing cost issue. More than likely they are trying to get whatever advantages they can, even if they are marginal.
I am sure that MS would never try to block Google from using EAS, at this point in time, which is the only way Google can survive in the enterprise market even though it would be a taste of it's own medicine. MS has grown up a little and looks much better in this incident than Google.
MS is one of the top ten contributors to the Linux kernel (adding support for Hyper-V, etc.). Also MS is releasing applications and games on competing platforms where/when it makes sense. Google is at the same stage MS was in the 90's. Where they would do anything to get ahead and it will be awhile before they grow out of it.

I've been moving all of my stuff over to outlook.com as well. I wonder if Google has been reading everyone's mail and noticed how many messages said "this is to confirm that your contact email has been changed from @google.com to @outlook.com" As if I didn't have enough reasons to get away from gmail.

I'm currently trying to make the permanent switch to Outlook. Although I'm a dedicated WP user, I used to support Google as well. Google obviously has a competing platform and they want to make it the best it can be, and I respect that. But these little 'games' Google has been playing when it comes to YouTube, Google Maps and now Gmail are getting ridiculous. I'm sick of it.

Well my Gmail account is just for spam now, I switched to outlook a few months before I got my 820 and I couldn't be happier! I really like the look of outlook and I got to use the name I always wanted for my email. :)

Thing is you are not allowed to use outlook.com for any business related activities (the license restricts it to personal use only), you cannot have more than 1000 contacts. And you cannot even attach a picture to a contact using the website. Plus there still is the spam issue (major ISPs have hotmail and outlook servers blacklisted) so there is a big chance your email shows up in the spam folder.

LOL, you use gmail for your business related activities??? That looks really good for your company. If you have more than 1000 contacts, you should think about spending some money and look for a better solution.

If you are talking about paid Gmail services, yes, there are many small businesses using that. What we are talking about in this thread is about the free hotmail, outlook and gmail services. Unless you are talking about a handyman, if a business has to use free Gmail as its regular email service, I have serious doubt about your business. If I see a business using Gmail as their regular email, I'll stop doing business with you. Why would I want to have Google to snoop into my business info?

Hmm. Not migrating anything as I am a solid Google user. But....I'm wondering if it's worth changing my account from the "Google" to an actual EAS since it'll be supported until July and I'm sure I'll be running from a new device by then. Thoughts anyone?

Total tools. Already and continue to go through the pain of switching to Outlook. One thing Gmail did right was work with other account much more nicely. If you had another non-google pop/imap email account you could seemlessly send and reply to email through gmail. Whereas Outlook adds the dumbass header: Sent of the behalf of x-account. Forced me to switch to an outlook.com address.

All I got ot of that is
A - MS probably gave them a really good deal on EAS for the next how ever long, because in the end of the day money was probably a big factor in this.
B - we'll have an update sometime after MWC (maybe) but a big service pack in July, which means all the really nice cool phones you'd drool over won't be out till then.

Microsoft has made it clear that they will suport CalDav and Card Dav and this was probably just the fruits of MS trying to get an extention until they could impliment support. Google get to kepp the users while saving moving not paying for EAS services and Microsoft doesn't have to put no support for Gmail as a feature keeping things simple for users. A win for them both

But my MS account's name is based off of Gmail. Also, I'm a frequent YouTube user. I really would like to switch, but sync is horrible. Facebook notif emails coming in 30min late... I tried Outlook, like some features, hate some others... But the way my account is set up... I guess I can't have a true MS account without associating Google. Oh well.

There's just too much investment in Google & Google services for me to give it up, both for personal and work. I literally JUST got my 8X (Jan 31) and was thrilled to see this! While I think CardDav & CalDav are superior for contacts & calendars, IMAP is not better than exchange imho so I'm glad to see Google still allowing it...at least until an official Gmail app for WP...? (wishful thinking)

Many express the disaproval for this decision by Google, but can someone explain why the disapproval?
MS was essentially telling Google, "Pay me a royalty for every person who uses Gmail and wants to sync their contacts/calendar with our phones."
Google probably responded with, "Wait, what? 90%+ of the phone industry has embraced the open standards for the free syncing of this stuff, but because you haven't I have to pay you a royalty?
Explanation please?

disaproval because google gave users 1 month. Thats not enough time for microsoft to release an update for windows phone so users can continue to use gmail calendar\contacts sync. Hopefull Microsoft can release an update before the next deadline. For example , I already have a windows phone with my gmail account syncing. If i get another one for someone in my family, it won't work for them. I blame this on google because google made such a short deadline.

So all those Windows Phones stuck on 7720 will finally be updated before the 7/31 deadline? HA! I wonder what Microsoft and AT&T are going to do when all those users find that they can no longer add Gmail accounts to their phones because AT&T didn't push a free patch that Microsoft is making available, nor any other patches that have been available for the past 18 months.